Annie Leibovitz: 10 Notable Portraits by Annie Leibovitz

Annie Leibovitz is one of the world’s most esteemed photographers. She began working as a photojournalist for Rolling Stone magazine in 1970, while she was still a student at the San Francisco Art Institute, and by 1973 she was named Rolling Stone’s chief photographer by publisher Jann Wenner. Since then, she has also shot photographs for publications including Vanity Fair and Vogue and legendary images of presidents in the White House. Several collections of her work have been published, including A Photographer’s Life: 1990–2005 (2006), Annie Leibovitz at Work (2008), and Pilgrimage (2012), and exhibitions of her photographs have appeared at museums and galleries all over the world, including the National Portrait Gallery, the Brooklyn Museum, the Smithsonian, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC.

Annie is the recipient of many honors, including the International Center of Photography’s Lifetime Achievement Award, being designated a Living Legend by the Library of Congress, and being made a Commandeur in the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government. The prolific photographer counts Robert Frank, Richard Avedon, Henri Cartier-Bresson among her many influences.

Photographer Annie Leibovitz has a large body of work documenting contemporary life, from glamour to everyday life. She is most well-known as a portrait photographer, and many of her celebrity portraits have been featured on the covers of major publications.

1. 1. Rachel Leibovitz (Waterbury, Connecticut, 1974): While Annie is most famous for her celebrity portraiture, she spent much of her early years shooting pictures of her family members in her hometown in Connecticut. According to Annie, these photographs published in her book A Photographer’s Life (2006) are among her best work.
2. 2. Mick Jagger (Buffalo, New York, 1975): After Annie earned a reputation at Rolling Stone magazine for being an exceptionally hard worker and talented photographer, she was asked to be the tour photographer on the Rolling Stone’s next band tour. The most famous photo she took on tour was of lead singer Mick Jagger after one of the performances—in the shot, he’s wrapped in a robe with a towel on his head, standing in an elevator, appearing exhausted.
3. 3. John Lennon and Yoko Ono (New York City, 1980): This polaroid portrait features an entirely nude Lennon wrapped around a fully clothed Ono. The picture, one of Annie’s most famous photographs, was taken only five hours before John Lennon’s death.
4. 4. Meryl Streep (New York City, 1981): A famously theatrical celebrity portrait by Annie, this close-cropped close-up features the actress with a face painted entirely white, pulling at her skin to suggest her ability to shapeshift when playing new roles.
5. 5. Whoopi Goldberg (Berkeley, California, 1984): Shot for Vanity Fair, this photograph is of a young Whoopi Goldberg who was just breaking onto the comedy scene. Part of her stand-up set included a series of jokes about bleaching her skin, so Annie decided to photograph Goldberg in a bathtub of milk to hearken back to her routine. The result is an arresting and politically complex portrait of the legendary comedian.
6. 6. Susan Sontag (Wainscott, Long Island, New York, 1988): Annie took many photographs—both candid shots and carefully composed ones—of her companion, essayist Susan Sontag. In this photo, Sontag is draped upside down across a couch in an intimate and quiet moment.
7. 7. Demi Moore (Culver City, California, 1991): When Annie got the assignment to photograph actress Demi Moore for Vanity Fair, the editors requested a close-cropped headshot since Moore was seven months pregnant at the time. Demi was given couture gowns to wear to hide the pregnancy. After Annie finished the shoot, she took a series of intimate nude shots for Demi and her family. With Demi’s blessing, the image that Annie captured of her, nude from the knees up, was featured on the magazine’s cover and would go on to become a lasting image in pop culture history.
8. 8. Patti Smith (New York City, 1996): This intimate portrait captured musician Patti Smith wearing her late husband’s leather jacket. The musician had wandered over to Annie’s studio, and the photographer was able to capture Patti’s grief in this somber image. Smith had recently lost her husband and brother. The photograph displays the singer’s raw, powerful emotion in a candid portrait reminiscent of one of Annie’s inspirations, photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson.
9. 9. Jack Nicholson (Mulholland Drive, Los Angeles, 2006): Annie poses the actor in a noir-style detective pose in this carefully constructed photo, dramatically lit by old car headlights and a hazy Los Angeles sunset. The image calls back to the iconic actor’s famous role in Chinatown (1974).
10. 10. Rachel Weisz as Snow White (Disney Resort, 2007): In addition to her editorial work with various publications, Annie has also shot photographs for several ad campaigns. Among her most famous campaigns is the Disney Portrait Series for the Disney Resorts, which feature actors posing in real-life imaginations of Disney characters. In this shot, actress Rachel Weisz poses among woodland creatures as princess Snow White.

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